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THE UNITED TRAVEL SERVICE - WIND AND STONE & GYSPSY EYES

THE UNITED TRAVEL SERVICE - "Wind And Stone" /
"Drummer Of Your Mind" (Ridon 854) November 1967
THE UNITED TRAVEL SERVICE - "Gypsy Eyes" /
"Echo Of You" (Ridon 860) October 1968

The suggested location for this band was Portland,
OR ....

The United Travel Service may be my favourite 60s
group never to have made an album. This is an injustice because over
the four sides on these two 45s songwriter Ben Hoff certainly laid
down killer psychedelic folk tunes. The high quality on offer makes me
certain they had enough in their repertoire to make a classic
psychedelic LP.

To my ears The United Travel Service sound just like 'Younger
Than Yesterday' period Byrds although a lot more rawer and less polished
but still displaying that Byrdsian raga rock sound and jangle...

All four cuts were produced by Rick Keefer who
also worked with The New Tweedy Brothers and Sound Vendor. If anyone knows anything about this cool outfit be
sure to let me know....

Dave Mathew got in touch about this obscure
outfit. I love it when more details are gathered adding 'missing'
pieces in the jigsaw before all is forgotten:

Hi.I played bass with United Travel Service in
the fall and winter of 1967. At that time, the band was based in
Corvallis, Oregon where at least a couple of us were students. We
made a field trip to Portland to record with Rick Keefer in a
dentist's basement. I honestly don't remember what tunes we did,
except that I sang "Mister You're A Better Man Than I" for
a B-side, and was chided by Rick for faking an English accent. The
basement belonged to a dentist who dabbled in recording and had a
home-made 3-projector 16-mm Cinerama setup in his basement. This was
also the studio (I DO remember the tape recorder: I went on into pro
recording and later knew it was an Ampex 300I will dig thru
old photos and notes to see if I have any other info. My memory for
such things is terrible, and my stay with the band was brief. I don't
know their story before or after. Other members at the time were
Steve Bennett and Dale Sweetland, I think. I'm still in Oregon and
maybe I can scare up some more information. Let me know if you hear
more.I never got a record, even from the session I was on. Oh
well.All the best,Dave Mathew

This was a band that had several national releases
back in the 60’s mainly consisting of protest psychedelic music and
long jams, we did college concerts up and down the west coast,the
band consisted of Ben Hoff,guitar and vocals, John Reeves 12 string
guitar, Ray Doren,bass, and Dale Sweetland, drums. The band
originated in Portland,OR and did several concerts on the West Coast,
one with The Doors (yes, the real Doors). Ben wrote some books that
ended up on the New York Times Best Seller list, Dale is currently
playing in Las Vegas with a band called Jerry Tiffe
http://www.jerrytiffe.com/ , John Reeves is living quietly in
Redmond, WA, and Ray lives in Madras,Oregon. Dale played with Doc
Severenson, Chase (Get it on in the morning), Sante Fe (nationally
recognized number one New Country band in 1998, Eddie Mcketa
http://www.edmcketa.com/ internationally recognized Hammond Organ
jazz player, James Faunt Trio plus 1, Jamie Font School of Music in
LA, he played with Chic Corea for a while, etc… if you want more
info, contact Dale at dale@talktek.net

Comments

I am an original member of the United Travel Service. After all these years, I was amazed to find any reference on the internet. For details on the group (originally from Portland, Oregon), I can be reached at rdoern@yahoo.com

Colin, For your info, Fuzz stated "Folk-rockers from Seattle, Washington (also quoted as from Portland Oregon)." The latter turns out to have been correct ... According to drummer Dale Sweetland(who "was there and in the band for the duration"), "the band consisted of Ben Hoff,guitar and vocals, John Reeves 12 string guitar, Ray Doren,bass, and Dale Sweetland, drums. The band originated in Portland,OR and did several concerts with The Doors (yes, the real Doors) on the West Coast.".

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